Jr Thackeray appeals against caste-based census

Aditya Thackeray, grandson of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, has begun taking baby steps in politics. On Wednesday, he made an appeal to citizens against mentioning their caste in the census data, saying that they should write ‘Indian’ as their caste to “sustain the unity and integrity of this country’.

Aditya Thackeray, grandson of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, has begun taking baby steps in politics. On Wednesday, he made an appeal to citizens against mentioning their caste in the census data, saying that they should write ‘Indian’ as their caste to “sustain the unity and integrity of this country’.

Nineteen-year-old Aditya, is an arts student at St Xavier’s College. Moving beyond the Marathi manoos issue, Aditya, son of party executive president, Uddhav Thackeray told HT, “Caste-based politics has not helped and will not help anyone. The Sena has never distributed election tickets looking at caste and religion.”

Speaking on the caste-based census appeal, he said, “We have seen that those who are not aware of caste are becoming aware of it, which is damaging the social fabric of this country.” Describing his grandfather’s fight for Marathi people, Aditya said, “We always lived as Marathi in Maharashtra and Hindu in Hindustan,” he said.